m6f 



TX 769 THE 

^"^^ ^ THEOPtY AND ART 



BREAD-MAKING 



A NEW PROCESS 



WITHOUT THE USE OF FERMENT. 



E. N.HORSPORD, 

RUMFORD PROFESSOR IX HARVARD UNIVERSITT, CAMBRIDGE. 



CAMBRIDG E: 
WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY, 

PKIXTKKS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 

18 6 1. 






fe^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by 
E . N . H O R S F O 11 D , 
in the Clerk's OfiSce of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



^ 






THE 



THEORY AND ART OF BREAD-MAKING. 



Bread-making, in its widest sense, consists in giving to the 
flour of certain grains convenient form for the purposes of food. 
What the form shall be is determined by several considerations, 
the most important of which is the adaptation of the food to the 
requirements of digestion. In order to this adaptation, the most 
essential quality of the bread is surface for the action of the digest- 
ing fluids. Bread presenting great surface, so as to yield promptly 
to the agents of digestion, is healthy, while that which presents 
little surface, so as to overtask the powers of digestion, as in the 
case of heavy bread, is not healthy. Surface is gained most con- 
veniently by giving to the mass of flour the cellular structure of 
raised or light bread. This cellular structure permits the fluids 
of the mouth and stomach to pass in by capillary action, and by 
endosmosis and exosmosis to penetrate every part of the mass and 
accomplish the office of digestion. 

As experience has shown wheat to contain the elements of nutri- 
tious food in the best proportions for the wants of the human or- 
ganism, the discussion which follows will be devoted to the art of 
making bread from wheaten flour. In the broadest acceptation, 
bread-making might include the preparation of crackers, cake, and 
all the forms of light and heavy pastry in use ; but it is proposed 
to omit all these, and limit the application of the word bread to 
the plain, light, or raised wheaten fiour loaf, into which, beside the 
principle of leaven, only salt and water enter as component parts. 
The great essential process of such bread-making is the production 
from flour of a permanent cellular structure of convenient size and 



THE THEORY AND ART 



form, — to wit, tlie raised loaf, with but inconsiderable changes of 
the original flour. If the loaf is made sweet by addition of sugar, 
or aromatic hy addition of flavoring extracts, Or rich by addition 
of eggs or butter or fruit, it is cake or pudding or pastry, but not 
bread. 

Let us consider the material out of which this loaf is to be 
produced. 

Composition of the Wheat- Grain. 
Fig. 1. 



d 



^ CD 




The crushed grain of wheat is a mixture of reddish-brown and 
white iwrtions. By bolting or sifting, most of the brown portion 
is removed. Of this the coarser part is called bran. Bran is 
commonly though not universally supposed to contain but little of 
the nutritious part of the wheat. Careful examination shows it 
to contain much of the interior portion of the berry. The outer 
true bran, or bark, may be partially removed by moistening the 
grains and rubbing them lightly between the folds of a coarse 
towel. This hull or bark so separated is chiefly composed of 
woody fibre, and contains little nutritious matter. Investigations 
made elsewhere, and confirmed in my laboratory, have shown 
the amount of the outer bran that may be so detached to be 
less than three and a half per cent of the weight of the un- 

Fig. 1 exhibits the wheat-grain or kernel of the natural size, presenting the 
grooved side and reverse, and cross section ; also a cross section magnified to 
18 diameters, and displaying tlie bran-coats, gluten-coat, and starch-cells. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 5 

branned berrj. Within this bark, and constituting a continu- 
ous inner wrapper, is the most important constituent of the 
wheat, as it contains the phosphates and nitrogenous ingre- 
dients out of which the digesting and assimilating apparatus 
elaborate all the important tissues and organs of the bodj. It 
is the gluten. Within this envelope of gluten, and extending 
to the centre of the berry, is a mass of starch. There are then 
three portions, — the bran proper or outer envelope, the gluten 
or inner envelope, and the starch. 

They are exhibited in Fig. 1. The bark envelope, including 
also the portion next the gluten, consists of several layers, the 
outermost of which much resembles very thin straw. The 
gluten is not fibrous, like the hull or bran proper, but is in cells, 
and cuts like the rind of cheese. The starch is granular and 
loosely held together by a coarse network of cellular tissue. 

The starch belongs to a class of bodies specially related to the 
respiratory organs. Its consumption, and that of the gum, sugar, 
and oil also present in small quantities in wheat-meal, contribute 
to maintain the temperature of the body necessary to the fulfil- 
ment of its various functions. 

Gluten is the name under which the chief nitrogenous constit- 
uents of the flour are grouped. In it there have been recognized 
an insoluble portion, the fibrine ; a smaller, soluble portion, the 
albumen ; and a portion not so well known, wdiich is said to expe- 
dite certain kinds of fermentation, and is called cerealine. As 
these bodies have substantially the same chemical constitution, it 
is conceivable that they differ from each other chiefly in the de- 
gree of degradation which the latter two have experienced, or in 
the degree in which they are susceptible of decomposition by the 
action of ferment, the fibrine being the most stable, and the cere- 
aline the least stable of the group. Besides the gluten in the 
envelope, there is, according to Mayer,^ a small amount of a solu- 
ble nitrogenous compound distributed throughout the starch. 

The gluten and starch may be separated from each other by 
kneading in a current of water. The former is a tenacious, 
slightly elastic substance. The latter is granular and loosely co- 
herent. 

1 Aim. d. Chei-n. u. Pharm., CI. Bd. 2, p. 163. 



THE THEORY AND ART 
Fig. 2. 




If a cross section of wheat be exposed for a short time to the 
action of a solution of ammonio-sulphate of copper, the gluten 
will be impregnated with a green compound. The extent of the 
green compound, which is coincident with that of the gluten, will 
be found to be limited to a thin envelope immediately within the 
bran proper. If another cross section be exposed for an instant 
to the action of a solution of iodide of potassium to which a few 
drops of nitric acid have been added, it will become deep violet 
wherever the starch granules occur, and the extent of the starch 
will be found to include the entire space within the thin envelope 
of gluten. Microscopic examination shows the gluten to be dis- 
posed in one continuous layer of cells with no intervening starch 
granules, and the chemical tests show that the gluten cells pene- 
trate the starch but slightly, if at all. 

Fig. 3. Miller^s Bran. 




Fig. 2 presents a portion of a transverse section of white wheat, magnified to 
150 diameters. 1, 1 are the coats of outer true bran ; 2 is the inner coat of true 
bran; 3 is a thin filmy coat covering the gluten cells; 4, cellulose containing 
gluten; 5, sacks of gluten; 6, starch-cells. 

Fig. 3 is a transverse section of commercial bran, upon the same scale as the 
last. The layer of starch is sometimes twice or three times as thick as is here 
exhibited. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 



Fig. 4. 



Loss of Phosphates with the Bran. 

A glance at these figures will explain why Mayer ^ found four- 
teen times as much phosi^horic acid in commercial bran as he 
found in commercial superfine flour. The bran carried with it 
most of the layer of gluten in which the phosphates and the 
companion nitrogenous compounds — the sources of living tis- 
sue — are lodged; while the superfine flour consisted chiefly of 
starch, but little of the . gluten having been detached from the 
bran. Mege-Mouries^ found the 
gluten coat to contain ten per cent 
of nitrogen, while the average of 
the whole berry is from two to 
three per cent. 

A glance at these figures will 
also show why the bread made 
from Graham flour, and the Pum- 
pernickel of Westphalia, which is 
also made from unbolted meal, and 
the black bread of like origin 
found in the sacks of Russian sol- 
diers in the Crimea, are so nu- 
tritious, in spite of their heaviness 
and sourness. They contain all 
the gluten as well as starch of the 
grain. All the phosphates and ni- 
trogenous compounds of the grain 
enter into the bread when the bran 
is not separated from the flour, in- 
stead of a small fraction only, as in 
bread made from superfine flour. 

Fig. 4 exhibits the arrangement of the successive coats, inchuling the ghiten 
and ghiten-cells, more or less of each coat being removed, so as to display the 
order of succession. It is also on a scale of 150 diameters. The coats 1, 1 are 
readily separated with a moist cloth.3 




1 Ann. d. Chem. u. Pharm., CI. Bd. 2, p. 146. 

2 Compt. Rendus, XLVIIT. 4-31. 

3 Mr. Thos. J. Hand, of New York, to whom I am indebted for these most 
detailed and elaborate original drawings, and who has in numerous ways aided 



8 THE THEORY AND ART 

Difficulties of Bread-making, 

It is well known that the best bread-makers find great diiR- 
cult}^ in the production of uniformly good bread. This is true 
of household cooks and of bakers employed in the shops. The 
bread is sometimes good, more frequently indifferent, and often- 
times positively bad. Sometimes the objectionable qualities of 
the bread are apparent to the touch, sometimes to the senses 
of smell and taste, and more frequently in their effects upon 
health through inferior assimilation. 

The sources of this difficulty are various. Some of them 
may be mentioned. The flour which is employed is variable 
in excellence as well as in composition. Some of it is made 
from winter wheat, some from spring wheat ; sometimes the 

me in my researches upou bread, is about to give to the public the results of his 
fresh microscopic examination of the structure of the kernel of wheat. 

The parts which Mr. Hand has so successfully individualized under the mi- 
croscope, may be separated to some extent by chemical processes. If the 
berry, deprived of the two outer coats of true bran by friction with a moistened 
cloth, be treated with alum solution, then opened along the side opposite the 
groove, digested with warm water, and carefull}^ pressed, the starch may be quite 
successfully separated. The residue, consisting of gluten and the immediate in- 
vesting coats, constitutes some twelve per cent of the Avhole berry. If the gluten 
coat be treated with acetic acid, it may, with care, be separated from the layers 
without. 

The extreme outer coats separated by friction with the moistened cloth, con- 
tain phosphate of iron and phosphate of, magnesia, besides silica and potassa. 
The ash which has been analyzed by my assistant, Mr. Brooks, is 6.64 per cent, 
of which 7.70 per cent is phosphoric acid. 

The coats next to the gluten contain also phosphates and alkalies. But the 
gi-eat magazine of phosphates, as well as of nitrogenous compounds, is in the 
gluten layer. 

The ash of Vv'heat as a whole contains, — 

Potassa 29.97 

Soda 3.90 

Magnesia 12.20 

Lime 3.44 

Phosphoric acid 46.02 

Sulphui'ic acid .33 

Silica 3.35 

Oxide of ii'on .79 

Chloride of sodium trace 

100.00 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 9 

flour is made from "grown" wheat; oftentimes it is heated in 
grinding, frequently it is damp and granular, and occasionallj 
it is sour. 

The ingredients of the leaven or yeast with which the ferment- 
ed "batch" bread is prepared are not only variable, but the 
changes which take place in the yeast itself are influenced by the 
quality and condition of the ingredients, by the volume of water 
employed, by the temperature to which the mixture is sub- 
jected from without, by the heat which is developed in the 
process of fermentation within, by the species of ferment which 
are added, by the degree of cleanliness maintained, and by the 
time during which the various changes are protracted. 

Effects of Fermentation. 

Among the effects which ferment produces in flour, — some 
of which are beneficial, and others of which are more or less 
hurtful, — there are the conversion of starch into dextrine (a 
body nearly allied to gum arabic), and this dextrine into sugar, 
and the changing of a portion of the sugar into alcohol and car- 
bonic acid, the production of lactic, acetic, butyric, succinic, and 
formic acids, the greater or less liquefaction of the gluten, the 
formation of ammonia, the production of a dark coloring matter, 
the development of microscopic vegetable organisms of various 
kinds, and, through the breaking down of the gluten, the greater 
or less deterioration of the nutritive properties of the flour. 
In the use of recently prepared leaven there is sometimes pro- 
duced an ethereal oil which adds to the pleasant taste of the 
bread. In the use of old leaven the production of offensive 
ethereal oil is uniform. 

Of all these effects, it is now generally conceded that the most 
important, if not the only essential office of ferment in the making 
of bread, is to give to it the requisite porosity, or to make it 
''''lights This porosity is necessary, as already intimated, that 
tlie fluids taking part in digestion may have surface to act upon. 
It is accomplished by the evolution of carbonic acid from sugar, 
the alcohol from which exhales with the surplus moisture in the 
process of baking. 

The production of all other acids than carbonic acid can scarcely 



10 THE THEORY AND ART 

be other than hurtful. The liquefoction of the gluten, due to 
their presence in excess, tends to deprive the bread of porosity. 
This extreme change causes the dough once distended to collapse 
and fall, leaving the bread heavy, or displaying here and there 
great cavities. 

Liebig proposed the use of lime-water in mixing the dough, — 
a suggestion that met with great acceptance. Its office was ob- 
vious. It neutrahzed the acid which was liquefying the gluten. 
The lime also combined with the liquefied gluten (albumen) giv- 
ing it firmness. The use of alum and sulphate of copper for the 
same end may be said to be, in some districts, quite universal. 
Dr. Hassall examined twenty-four samples of London bread, and 
found alum in all. Dr. Muspratt remarks that what is true of 
London may be said of Liverpool and all the larger towns of Eng- 
land. Dumas found that sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) had 
been in use in Belgium from an indefinitely early period. The 
quantity employed, however, was very small. Kuhlmann found 
that one baker employed only a pipe-bowl full of the solution for 
250 lbs. of bread. It was observed to have the effect to make 
inferior flour produce a bread that sold as well as bread from a 
better quality of flour, and, besides, the bread retained more water 
and was whiter. Alum produced the same results. The action 
of the alum, by virtue of its qualities as a mordant, is readily un- 
derstood. It combines with albumen and renders it less soluble, 
so far aiTCSting the action of the ferment, and thus in a twofold 
way lessening the liquefaction of the gluten. The action of sul- 
phate of copper is much the same as that of alum, in so far as 
combining with the albumen, to form a compound less influenced 
by the ferment, is concerned, and it may have a separate specific 
effect. It is said to increase the activity of the ferment, but this 
may be apparent only, as the effect may be simply to stiflTen the 
gluten, and thus increase its capacity to hold all the bubbles which 
the ferment produces. It is conceivable that it acts somewhat, 
though inferior in degree, as corrosive sublimate does to destroy 
some of the species of the yeast-plants. 

The excessive production of dextrine, with extreme porosity, 
makes the bread dry too rapidly, and gives rise to the brittleness 
and hardness which characterize the slice of most bakers' loaves 
when lefl a short time exposed to the air. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 11 

Mould poisonous. 

The mould, or the organic germs from which it arises, can only 
be hurtful. To this, it is well known, some of the most painful 
forms of dyspepsia are ascribed. The significance of this state- 
ment may not at first glance be fully appreciated. The existence 
of microscopic organisms in the various forms of yeast has been 
established. Whether they be regarded as having an essential 
office to fulfil in the process of fermentation, as many maintain, 
or whether the more philosophical view of Liebig be accepted, 
that they are the incidental concomitants of decay, — the yeast 
germs everywhere present in the atmosphere finding a fit soil in 
decaying vegetable organisms, — whether the one view or the 
other be adopted, it is admitted that the phenomena of fermenta- 
tion are accompanied by the growth of microscopic vegetable 
organisms.^ It is well known that each kind of ferment is capa- 
ble of reproducing itself, and communicates to the new substance 
the" tendency to break up into bodies of the same character as 
those into which it is itself resolved. This is true of lactic, 
acetic, and putrefactive fermentation, as well as of those attend- 
ing the successive changes of starch into dextrine, sugar, and 
alcohol and carbonic acid. When now we take into account 
these doctrines, it is not difficult to conceive that the ferments 
and their yeast-plants, having escaped destruction by the heat 
of baking, may produce ill effects when they reach the general 
circulation. 

As a class, microscopic fungi are poisonous. Some of the 
forms of mould in carelessly dried chestnuts are well known to 
be poisonous. The form of mould that appears on cheese has 
long been recognized as a malignant poison. The fungus^ that 
appears on rye, and its ill effects, are well known. The wheat- 
bread distributed among the troops in Paris in 1841 was found 
to contain in all its crevices a minute red hchen. The rust of 
wheat and smut of corn are varieties of these poisonous fungi. 

1 Blondeaii has indicated the particular fun^i that attend the different kinds 
of fermentation. With the alcoholic is the Torvula cererisice ; with the lactic 
acid, the Penicillium glaucum ; and with the acetic, Torvula aceii. 

2 Ergot. 



12 THE THEORY AND ART 

Dr. Mitchel of Philadelphia long since called attention to 
the influence of these microscopic organisms on health, and the 
subject in this immediate connection has been discussed at con- 
siderable length ; among others, by an English author on hygiene, 
Dr. Lobb, in a series of articles in the Medical Circular of Lon- 
don, in which he advocates the aerated bread of Dr. Dauglish, 
made without ferment, to the exclusion of all fermented batch- 
bread ; and in an able paper by Dr. Hunt in the North Ameri- 
can Journal of Homoeopathy. 

These effects of ferment and the incidental deterioration of 
the flour by the incipient disintegration of the gluten are un- 
desired concomitants, which, to a greater or less extent, we 
must accept if we produce the cellular structure by means of 
ferment. 

Wliy Flour is mixed with Water and Yeast, and Tcneaded and 
baked, Sfc. 

The great fact, as already remarked, in the art of bread-making, 
is the jjroduction of surface for the action of the digesting fluids. 
It is the accomplishment of a permanent cellular structure. Let 
us trace the series of processes. 

The jlour is thoroughly mixed with water for what ? That 
the gluten, which, when moistened with water, possesses elas- 
ticity and tenacity, may be intimately mixed with the starch, so 
that when bubbles of gas appear in the midst of the loaf they 
may everywhere have an elastic and tenacious coat. 

The yeast is kneaded thoroughly with the Jiour for what'^ That, 
when the gas-bubbles are produced, their walls may be thin 
enough to dry, by exhalation of the water, to the consistency 
required for self-support before the outside burns in the process 
of baking. 

The dough is placed in the oven to he baked for what ? That 
the surface, by extreme drying, may become hard at the moment 
when the dough has attained its greatest porosity, and hold 02? 
the spongy interior while the surplus water is exhaled. The 
browning of the crust gives rise, by destructive distillation, to 
some essential oils, kindred with those produced in the roasting 
of corn or coffee, and agreeable to the senses of smell and taste. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 13 

The coagulation of the albumen, and tiie increased solubility of 
some of the starch produced by bailing, may be considered steps 
in the du'ection of disintegration. 

Are there other effects accomplished in ordinary bread-making ? 
Knapp remarks, that the starch is for the most part unchanged. 
Any one may satisfy himself on this point by adding a drop of 
iodine water to a crumb of bread, which will become blue. The 
starch and gluten may be separated by kneading Avith cold 
water. They have been simply mixed together, and the change 
produced in them has been inconsiderable. 

But is there not something mysterious in the action of ferment 
which gives the fermented bread decided superiority ? Let us 
consider this inquiry. 

Tlw Ideal Loaf. 

Every baker has in his mind an ideal loaf, — a loaf the ferment 
of which was quite fresh, and almost neutral or but slightly acid, 
and that with volatile acid ; the flour of which was not heated in 
grinding, nor moistened just before nor after grinding, and made 
from choice winter wheat containing a large proportion of gluten, 
which gluten was not all removed with the bran, the mixing of 
wliich was with rich milk instead of water, the rising of which 
was carefully watched so that the loaf might be placed in the 
oven when the temperature of the latter and the distension of 
the former were precisely what they should be, — and now and 
then some of the numerous staff have had a loaf approaching 
that ideal. But the testimony of all is that the task of attaining 
it is one beset with innumerable difficulties, and that no one 
would be safe in prophesying with regard to a given trial as to its 
result ; so that whatever the careful baker may occasionally re- 
joice in, the world cannot have this ideal loaf. If there were no 
other reasons, there is not good flour enough for it. The intrinsic 
difficulties of the problem lie in the number of unknown quantities 
in the yeast and flour, and the varying skill of the cook. These 
difficulties are so great that the baker speaks of the -vagaries of 
the yeast, — its fitfulness, inconsistency, and untrustworthiness, 
as if they were almost entitled to the rank of moral qualities. It 
is known, for example, that a sample of yeast that sometimes 



14 THE THEORY AND ART 

refuses to work well on a lower floor will work admirably in the 
fourth story, and that a yeast working well at one bakery, when 
carried with its containing vessels to a neighboring bakery, re- 
fuses to fulfil its office. These phenomena find some explanation 
when it is considered that the germs of the yeast-plants are carried 
readily in the air. 

All attempts at establishing a method of making fermented 
batch-bread that shall be invariably good, from the days when 
unleavened bread was prescribed for use at sacred ceremonials, 
have resulted in but inconsiderable advancement. The process 
of Rollan, which attracted considerable attention in France, and 
the ingenious processes of Berdan, apply only to the mechanical 
arrangements connected with kneading and baking. Neither 
made the slightest advance in the most essential part of the pro- 
cess, — to wit, the production of the cellular structure. 

Mege-Mouries's Process. 

The most considerable contribution in recent times to our 
scientific knowledge on this subject has been made by Mege- 
Mouries. This experimenter divides wheaten meal into three 
portions, — jiour, groats, and hran. He steeps the groats with 
water, in the proportion of one of groats to four of water acidulated 
with tartaric acid, and lets it run through the alcoholic fermen- 
tation. It is then strained, to separate any bran-flakes, and 
mixed with the flour which is to be made into dough. The al- 
leged gain is that the loaf does not become dark-colored, as 
wheaten meal more frequently does, and as other bread occa- 
sionally does when made in the ordinary way, and that all the 
nitrogenous constituents of the flour are saved. Mouries's theory 
is, that there is a nitrogenous body in the groats, the first action of 
which is to produce a dark-colored compound as a result of dis- 
integration. This function of the nitrogenous body having been 
fulfilled by letting it run through the alcoholic fermentation, it 
is in condition to perform the ofl&ce of leaven upon the flour. 
Mouries's process is doubtless good ; though, in careful hands, it 
has not invariably succeeded, and his reading of the results is im- 
perfect. Bakers are familiar with the fact that dough which is 
made with brewers' yeast, set aside to rise one hour, for example, 



OF BREAD-MAKIXG. • 15 

and then baked, yields a dark -colored loaf, while, if permitted to 
remain two hours before baking, it yields a white loaf. The color- 
ing matter is, then, obviously a passing phase accompanying cer- 
tain changes. The bread of the darker loaf is uniformly sweeter 
than that of the whiter loaf. The baking arrests the changes 
in the dough. In the first case the changes stop in the dextrine 
and sugar stage ; in the second, they stop in the alcoholic stage. 

To comprehend this fully, let it be remembered that the best 
researches made in this direction, from Schwann and Liebig to 
Pasteur, go to prove that each change in the fermenting mass 
has its own special attendant ferment, that each ferment is ca- 
pable of reproducing itself, and that the transforming power of 
each ferment is proportioned to the quantity present. • When 
Mouries sets the groats aside to steep in water, he sets aside a 
great excess of gluten and a moderate amount of starch ; when 
he adds tartaric acid, or starch sugar already in ferment, he 
introduces an agent which liquefies the gluten. Exposure to the 
air is followed by the absorption of oxygen and the breaking 
down of the gluten compound. With this comes the formation 
of the ferment that is to change the starch to dextrine ; further 
disintegration of the gluten gives the body that is to convert the 
dextrine into sugar, and still further disintegration, and perhaps 
oxidation, the body that is to transform the sugar into alcohol 
and carbonic acid. Each of these transforming agents not only 
produces- the change in starch or dextrine or sugar which is its 
immediate office, but it reproduces itself, as already remarked, 
from the stock of nitrogenous matters at hand. Thus, when the 
decoction of the groats has run its course through the alcoholic 
fermentation, it has left behind — no starch, no dextrine, no 
sugar, — but it has left the particular ferments that are essential 
to the production of the dextrine, sugar, and alcohol. And when 
this magazine of ferments is mixed with flour to be wrought into 
bread, and a portion of the starch is transformed into dextrine by 
the aid of the appropriate ferment, another ferment is at hand to 
convert the dextrine into sugar, and still another ferment to 
convert the sugar into alcohol. These several ferments were 
produced from the groats by the preliminary process. 

Conceive now the supply of ferment required to effect any of 



16 THE THEORY AND ART 

the changes in the series to be inadequate, — for example, the 
ferment necessary to produce the change from dextrine to sugar. 
Suppose the baking to take place when this stage has been 
reached. The bread will be characterized by the presence of 
dextrine and sugar. It will be dark-colored, and sweet and 
heavy. But give time for new ferment to be produced and to act, 
and the change will be complete. The ferment that converts the 
sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid being present in adequate 
quantity, the dark color and extreme sweetness and heaviness 
will disappear. 

The saving of the gluten of commercial bran or groats, or " fine 
feed," if only as a ferment to spare the disintegration of the 
gluten of the flour, is desirable, but the certainty of obtaining 
good fermented batch-bread by the process of Mouries, beside 
consuming much time, requires the same close attention that the 
ordinary process with brewers' yeast requires. Moreover, the 
usage of this country does not contemplate the joint purchase 
of flour and bran for home supplies. 

Can Fermentation he avoided'^ 

Since then fermented batch-bread is liable to these uncertain- 
ties, and since the cellular structure is the only important good re- 
sult attained by fermentation, the inquiry suggests itself whether 
this desirable effect of ferment may not be attained without the 
hazard of making the bread hurtful, — without the sustained care 
and watchfulness, and without the consumption of so much time. 
May it not be attained without the use of decaying gluten, 
starch, and sugar ? This is manifestly the great problem of 
household supplies. It has been so recognized. This inquiry 
was made by Henry ^ at the close of the last century, when he 
proposed the use of a carbonated alkali and muriatic acid, that, 
when mixed with the flour and moistened, gives, by the evolution 
of carbonic acid, the requisite porosity, and produces common 
salt throughout the loaf at the same time. 

The mixture of saleratus (carbonate of potassa) and sour milk 

1 This plan is ordinarily ascribed to Dr. R, Thompson. Dr. Whiting, in 
1837, and Sewall, in 1848, took out English patents for modifications of the 
process. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 17 

(lactic acid) with flour was another answer, and this method of 
making biscuit and short-cake is still practised to some extent ; 
but the imperfect distribution of the saleratus throughout, and 
the imperfect neutralization of the potassa, because of the varia- 
ble acidity of the sour milk employed, and the consequent free 
alkali in the bread, both discoloring it and making it bitter, have 
brought this method into general disrepute. Bicarbonate of soda 
with sour milk has found more favor, the less causticity of 
this alkali, if any remains without being neutralized by the lactic 
acid, being less objectionable to the palate and less marked in 
its effects on the bread. 

The mixture of dry tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda with 
flour is well known to produce a light and palatable bread. Sub- 
stituting cream of tartar — an acid tartrate of potassa — in place 
of pure tartaric acid, to be mixed with the bicarbonate of soda, is 
another and popular expedient for escaping the prolonged and 
variously objectionable process of bread-making m the use of 
yeast or sour dough. 

Dr. Dauglish has devised a method, recognizing — indeed, 
based upon — the idea that the only desirable oflice of all fer- 
ments in bread-making is to give to the loaf a certain cellular 
structure. He works into the flour a solution of carbonic acid in 
water, employing a closed kneading apparatus, so as to conduct 
the process under pressure. To this plan, which results in most 
excellent and acceptable bread, there can be no objection except 
that, although suited to the wants of extensive public bakeries, 
it does not meet the wants of private families. 

The use of bicarbonate of soda and sour milk has this objec- 
tion, that the proper adjustment of acid and soda is rarely if ever 
attained, and the bread is frequently bitter and portions of it 
brown, from the excess of alkali. 

The use of cream of tartar and bicarbonate of soda in equiva- 
lent proportions, resulting in tartrate of soda and tartrate of 
potassa, is generally regarded as harmless, because these sub- 
stances are present in much of the most healthful fruit we eat ; 
but there are eminent physicians who regard the bread made 
by the use of these ingredients as injurious to the alimentary 
organs. 

2 



18 THE THEORY AND ART 

In all these processes nothing useful is added to the dough, 
except the cellular texture. However deficient any of the nor- 
mal constituents of the flour may be, none of its wants are 
supplied by any of these methods. 

THE NEW METHOD. 

In view of the foregoing, the question naturally suggests itself. 
May it not be possible to return a wanting ingredient, or add a 
nutritive constituent to the bread, at the same time that the 
raising of the loaf is accomplished as an incidental effect? 

This problem has been subjected to experimental solution. 

The idea which directed the research was the production, 
each by itself, of the two ingredients, the acid and the base of a 
normal salt, present in the cereals and all healthful food, and 
essential to the production of all the important organs of the 
body, in such form that the two mixed with flour would remain 
inert till the addition of water or the application of heat, and 
then unite to establish the normal salt, evolving incidentally car- 
bonic acid from the midst of the dough, to make the bread porous. 

Of all the salts taking part in vital processes, the most impor- 
tant are the phosphates. They enter into the composition of the 
boiles, the muscles, the nerves, the brain, and indeed of every 
higher tissue ; and wherever an important function is to be per- 
formed there nature has supplied a store of phosphates. They 
are present in all the forms of substantial food. Aside from 
the great prominence now given by the medical world to the 
use of the various forms of soluble hypoj^hosphites, it is well 
known that finely prepared phosphate of lime, eaten as such, 
greatly aids the growth and firmness of bones and teeth. Frac- 
tured bones are reunited much more promptly upon a diet into 
which pulverized bone enters as a prominent constituent. The 
excess of phosphates in the secretions of the kidneys consequent 
upon extreme mental exhaustion has led to the use of some form 
of phosphorus to renew the cerebral and nervous fibre.^ 

Food otherwise unobjectionable is frequently deficient in these 
ingredients, and the effect of Hving too exclusively upon such 
imperfect diet is conceived to lower the tone and diminish the 

1 Sir Benjamin Brodie. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 



19 



vigor of the system as a whole. On the other hand, it has been 
suggested that pioneers and early settlers owe the prominence of 
the osseous system, and the accompanying hardihood they so 
uniformly display, in no small degree to the abundant phosphates 
supplied by the virgin soil to the cereals and meats that constitute 
their food. This suggestion derives strength from the circum- 
stance that the effeminacy of many Oriental nations is the con- 
comitant of a diet which is relatively deficient in phosphates. 

This demand of the system for phosphates is illustrated in the 
well-known relish of many inferior animals for bones. Cattle, 
grazing in inferior pastures, eat ground bones with avidity. 

Superfine Wheat Flour is deficient in Phosphates. 

In the preparation of ordinary superfine wheaten flour we 
lessen the quantity of normal phosphates by all that are contained 



Fig. 5. 




Fig. 5. Outline drawing of a portion of a longitudinal section of MiUer^s 
Bran, upon a scale of 150 diameters. This is the companion drawing to Fig. 
3, which presents a transverse section of miller's bran. This is an accurate 
drawing, under a camera lucida, and shows the great loss of nutritious mat- 
ters in ordinary Miller''s Bran. 

1, outer true bran; 2, inner true bran; 3, thin membranous coat; 4, coat 
containing gluten cells; 5, gluten sacks, in outline; 6, 6, starch cells^ in outline. 



20 THE THEORY AND ART 

in the gluten which is sejDarated with the bran. Mayer, who has 
made upon this subject the most detailed and comprehensive 
research, finds the percentage of phosphoric acid in bran to be 
2.82, while the percentage in superfine flour is only 0.20 ; that is, 
the bran contains, weight for weight, as already remarked, more 
i\\im fourteen times as much phosphoric acid as the superfine Jiour 
that is separated from it. 

The gluten which contains the phosphates is for the most part 
distributed, as already remarked, immediately within the bran 
coat of the berry. It is easy to see, therefore, why the gluten 
should be so largely removed with the bran, — why also more pro- 
portionally of the nutritious portion of the grain is withdrawn, when 
a large part of it is separated as bran, in the effort to obtain a white 
superfine flour. Mege-Mouries recovered in part the nutritious 
matter when he employed the brari or groats extract as a ferment. 
He at least spared the gluten present in the flour, that would oth- 
erwise have been sacrificed to the wants of fermentation. But as 
the process of Mouries, for reasons already mentioned, is imprac- 
ticable, even if it promised good bread with greater certainty of 
fulfilment than the ordinary processes of fermented batch-bread, 
there remains, as the next best thing, the restoration of the phos- 
phates. They are, moreover, the salts, which, with the gluten, are 
sometimes deficient. It is known that the wheat-grain, grown 
under certain circumstances, has contained no gluten whatever.^ 
In many cases it is imperfectly supplied with gluten, especially 
when it has been grown upon impoverished soil. Thus, in in- 
troducing phosphates into bread, we shall fulfil the double oflfice 
of restoring an ingredient sometimes deficient even if the whole 
berry is employed, and always deficient in superfine flour. These 
deficient phosphates are the phosphates of the alkalies, and of the 
alkaline earths, lime and magnesia. 

To secure the more important of these in the bread, with the 
incidental evolution of carbonic acid, it is only necessary to mix 
together with the flour a dry, highly acid phosphate of lime, 

1 This was the case with a sample of Algerian wheat analyzed l)y Millon. It 
contained soluble nitrogenous compounds. Compt. Rend., XXXVIII. 12. Mayer 
found less phosphoric acid with the sohible nitrogenous compounds of the in- 
terior than with the gluten of the envelope. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 21 

which is phosphoric acid and neutral phosphate of lime, and dry 
bicarbonate of soda, in such proportions as shall leave a neutral 
phosphate of lime and phosphate of soda after the dough has 
been thoroughly kneaded and baked. 

Preparation of the Acid. 

The phosphoric acid is prepared from the only practicable 
source of it, the bones of beef and mutton. They are boiled, 
then calcined, after which the lime is in great measure withdrawn 
by the action of a stronger acid, and the phosphoric acid, as an 
exceedingly acid phosphate of lime, extracted by leaching. The 
extract is then concentrated by boiling, and in this condition 
mixed with simple farinaceous matters, dried at a low heat to 
render it brittle, and pulverized. When now this pulverulent 
acid is mixed with dry flour, and to this mixture bicarbonate of 
soda added in such quantity as exactly to neutralize the free 
phosphoric acid, and in such quantity of both acid and carbonate 
that the carbonic acid evolved shall give to the loaf the requisite 
porosity, then it remains only intimately to incorporate these in- 
gredients with water and a little salt, and bake, in order to the 
production of bread. The addition of the water to the mixture 
of flour, acid phosphate of lime, and carbonate of soda, and 
especially the application of heat, causes the phosphoric acid to 
decompose the carbonate of soda, with the evolution of carbonic 
acid, forming cavities throughout the dough, and producing at the 
same time phosphate of lime and phosphate of soda. 

Instead of mixing the acid separately with the flour and then 
this mixture with the bicarbonate of soda, the acid phosphate and 
the bicarbonate, thoroughly dried, may be mixed together, and in 
this condition preserved until the occasion for preparing the 
dougii arises. The mixture may then be incorporated with the 
flour, and thoroughly kneaded with an adequate quantity of cold 
water. 

Scientijic Precision in Bread-making. 

By this process, bread-making and most of the forms of pastry- 
preparation may be reduced to scientific precision. The produc- 
tion of cellular structure will be a thing by itself. Other quali- 



22 THE THEORY AND ART 

ties may be added as taste or fancy suggests. Sugar or acids, 
aromatic fluids or fruits, butter or eggs, any or all, may be incor- 
porated in specified quantities, without interfering with the agent 
which is to produce cellular structure. None of the constituents 
of the flour, derived from its starch or its gluten, are to be sacri- 
ficed in order to gain porosity, as in the ordinary process of fer- 
mentation. 

This method has enabled the writer to insulate, and impart at 
will to the loaf, the peculiar properties of the baker's fermented 
batch-bread. By adding a little wine to the water with which 
the flour containing the cell-producing powder (the mixed pulver- 
ulent phosphoric acid and bicarbonate of soda, or yeast-powder) 
is mixed, the baked loaf acquired some of the peculiar aroma of 
the wine, and a certain peculiar feel of the pile (cellular structure) 
recognized in good fermented bread, and due to to the presence 
of alcohol. By adding British gum (roasted starch or dex- 
trine), the baked loaf acquired a certain leathery toughness, 
recalling this common property of fermented bread. By adding 
sugar, the peculiar sweetness of a loaf baked in the sugar stage 
of its fermentation was recognized. By adding weak vinegar, 
the peculiar objectionable acidity of bread made from ferment 
passed into the acetic fermentation was imparted to the loaf. 

By adding to the mixture of yeast-powder, flour, and salt, 
before kneading, instead of water or milk wholly, a part of good 
ale, there were imparted all the desired qualities of the choicest 
loaf of fermented bread made from brewers' yeast. This pro- 
cess insured the aroma and faint, agreeable bitter of the hop, — 
the dextrine, alcohol, and sugar of the beer, — in addition to 
the cellular structure ; and to those who relish these qualities, 
due to beer, the method leaves nothing to desire. A few experi- 
ments will satisfy any baker or cook that the qualities he covets 
in bread or pastry may be imparted to it with certainty upon the 
principle here laid down. 

Is Bread made hy the New Method Healthy ? 

Let us consider whether any ill can result to health from the 
use of bread containing phosphates of lime and soda. Prac- 
tically this question has been settled in two ways. Bread has 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 23 

always contained phosphate of lime and phosphate of potassa 
(nearly allied to phosphate of soda), and the article of phos- 
phatic bread has been in extensive use for a series of years, to 
the great satisfaction of those who have employed it. But 
it may be asked, — Does the question admit of a theoretical 
doubt ? 

Both the articles are essential constituents of healthful food. 
The phosphate of soda is a normal constituent of the blood, and 
the phosphate of lime or phosphoric acid, in some form of 
combination, is present as an indispensable ingredient of every 
important tissue of the organism. The bread made from super- 
fine wheaten flour is deficient in the phosphates, and this supply 
fulfils a legitimate want.^ But it may be asked, Is there provis- 
ion for the healthful removal of phosphates, if there be a surplus ? 
To this inquiry, the fact that nature has provided for the remov- 
al of portions of the osseous system, especially in cases of frac- 
ture, is perhaps a sufficient answer ; but there is another, more 
emphatic. The French army was at one time supplied with 
soup-cakes prepared from bones with the aid of Papin's dio-ester. 
The cakes prepared from bones liquefied at an elevated tempersL- 
ture and under pressure, supplied phosphates in quantity greatly 
beyond the normal wants of the soldiers' diet; but nature appropri- 
ated such portion of the nutriment offered as she required, and the 
remainder was rejected. If the digestive system can thus easily 
dispose of this great surplus, the task which the phosphatic bread 
may impose is a light one. The supei-fine wheat-flour, which 
constitutes generally less than three quarters, and in some instan- 
ces less than one half, of the wheat from which it is prepared, 
has according to Mayer, already cited, only one fifteenth of the 
phosphoric acid of the original wheat. One hundred ounces of 
bread made from flour of the latter quality contain about three 
ounces of phosphates less than the whole wheat contained. This 
quantity greatly exceeds the amount restored in the use of phos- 
phatic yeast-powder. 



1 See the statement of Mayer, already quoted. Mouri6s's analysis of the 
gluten coat, taken in connection with the correlation of the nitrogenous ingi-e- 
dients and phosphates, amply confirms the tmth of this remark. 



24 THE THEORY AND ART 



SUMMARY. 



The wlieat-grain consists of an outside coat, composed of sev- 
eral layers, and constituting the pericarp or bran proper, which 
contains but httle nutritious matter; an inner envelope, the gluten, 
which contains most of the nitrogenous constituents and phos- 
phates, and an interior mass of starch. 

In the ordinary method of bolting to produce superfine white 
flour, most of the first two are separated. In Graham flour, so 
called, or wheaten meal, the constituents are not separated from 
each other. The Pumpernickel, or sour black bread of West- 
phalia, is made from flour of the latter kind. It contains, as does 
bread made from ordinary unbolted wheat-meal, all the nutritious 
ingredients of the wheat. 

Fermented or leavened bread differs from unleavened bread 
in that the former has derived a porous structure from the gases 
evolved in the greater or less decay of some of its constituents. 

The chief advantage possessed by leavened or porous bread is 
that it permits the ready admission of the juices of the mouth and 
stomach employed in digestion. Without this the bread would be 
unhealthfuh The object in kneading is thoroughly to incorporate 
the starch and gluten of the flour with the leaven and water, so 
that, when bubbles appear in the dough, they may be surrounded 
by an elastic and tenacious coat, and not run together, giving rise 
to large cavities and making the bread heavy. 

The object in baking is to arch over the risen dough by sudden 
drying or conversion of the starch into dextrine, so as to hold up 
the porous interior while the surplus water exhales, without which 
the digesting fluids could enter but slowly ; and also to render the 
starch more soluble, while the albuminous portion of the gluten is 
coagulated. 

To make uniformly good fermented bread is well known to be 
a task beset with numerous difficulties. 

The difficulties arise partly from the variable qualities of the 
yeast employed, and more still from the influence of time and 
temperature upon the action of the yeast on itself and on the 
flour. 

The yeast, beside conferring the cellular structure upon dough. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 25 

deteriorates the flour by the greater or less disintegration of the 
gluten. It frequently makes the bread offensive to the taste and 
smell. The microscopic plants which attend on fermentation 
are not all destroyed by baking. Each change of the starch, 
whether yielding dextrine, sugar, lactic acid, alcohol and carbonic 
acid, or acetic acid, has its own accompanying ferment and fungus 
or plant. 

These microscopic plants or fungi, as a class, are poisonous. 
To most persons warm fermented bread is injurious, possibly, it 
has been suggested, because the vitality of some of the yeast- 
plants has escaped the destructive action of the oven. These 
surviving plants, whose office is the disintegration of albuminous 
compounds, after imperfect digestion, it is maintained, produce 
their ill effects upon the blood. 

In stale bread, the prolonged drying has perhaps deprived the 
larger portion of the plants, and corresponding ferments, of vital- 
ity, or has permitted them to exhaust their action in converting 
starch into dextrine and sugar, and the latter into lactic acid, so 
that fermented bread when cold is less injurious. If the fungi 
and ferment which accompany the changes from starch to dex- 
trine, sugar, alcohol, and carbonic acid, are relatively but slightly 
injurious to most healthy organisms, it cannot be doubted that 
the fungi and accompanying ferment that attend upon putrefactive 
fermentation, which are liable to be present in fermented bread, 
are objectionable in the last degree.^ 

Numerous attempts have been made to give cellular structure 
to dough without the aid of ferment. The method of carbonate 
of soda and hydrochloric acid, — that of carbonate of potassa and 
sour milk (lactic acid), — that of carbonate of soda and tartaric 
acid or cream of tartar, — and that of kneading dough under pres- 
sure with water chai'ged Avith carbonic acid, have all had their 

1 Dr. Lobb (London Medical Cirmilar, Vol. XVI. No. 397, p. 90) remarks, that 
the vitality of the yeast in the centre of a loaf of fermented batch-bread is never 
wholly destroyed. I have found that freshly-baked fermented bread, crumbled 
up and mixed with flour, mashed potatoes, and water, passes into putreAxctive 
fermentation. The reason why warm fermented bread is not healthful to per- 
sons whose digestive powers are not in full vigor, while stale bread is less so, 
invites further observation and experiment. 



26 THE THEORY AND ART 

advocates. Although objections have arisen to all these methods, 
the last two have met with great acceptance. But not one of 
them adds a nutritive ingredient to the bread. 

The method of Mege-Mouries, employing the extract of bran 
or groats as a source of ferment, is commendable, as it tends to 
save the nutritious constituents of the flour ; but it is time-con- 
suming, and, as experiment has shown, does not seem any more 
certain, without equivalent care and w^atchfulness, to produce good 
bread, than the ordinary method of brewers' yeast or sour dough. 

The writer proposes a new method of raising bread, which, at 
the same time that it adds a nutritious ingredient, or restores a 
wanting constituent of nutrition to the flour, shall incidentally 
confer cellular structure on the dough ; a method by which, while 
the bread is made light, phosphates of hme and soda shall be 
produced in the bread, to take the place in some degree of the 
phosphates withdrawn from the flour with the bran, or deficient 
in the original wheat. 

This method gives to the baker the scientific precision which 
successful bread-making requires. The cellular structure may 
be produced by itself, and any other desired qualities may be 
imparted, each by itself, by employing the necessary agent for the 
purpose. For example, alcohol, dextrine, sugar, and flavoring 
extracts may be made to produce their specific effects upon the 
dough, each by itself. Or they may be employed, several of 
them together. Or they may be all united, and the most prized 
qualities of home-made bread conferred on the loaf, by replacing 
a part of the water required for kneading with ale. Thus the 
qualities imparted by dextrine, sugar, alcohol, aroma of the hop, 
the faint trace of pleasant acidity, and slight agreeable bitterness, 
which are generally so much esteemed in bread, may be given 
without the hazard of the offensive results that frequently attend 
ordinary fermentation. 

The principle here laid down will make the preparation of all 
the forms of pastry a task of moderate skill and great certainty. 



OF BREAD-MAKING. 27 



ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW METHOD. 

Among the advantages which the new method of making 
bread presents, are : — 

1. Its saving of the nutritious constituents of the flour from 
consumption in the process of raising the bread. 

2. Its restoration of the phosphates, which are in larger or 
lesser measure removed with the bran in the preparation of the 
finer quahties of flour. 

3. Its saving of time. ^Yhile ordinary fermented bread in- 
volves as a general thing preparation over night, care for several 
hours before baking, and dependence on a variable supply of 
leaven or yeast, the phosphatic bread is prepared from the flour 
for the oven in a few minutes. 

4. It secures a uniformly excellent result, while the result 
with the process of fermentation is of doubtful issue, and in 
household production is more frequently indifferent than good. 

5. It furnishes a bread that retains its moisture much longer 
than equally porous fermented bread, and does not mould as 
readily as fermented bread does. 

6. It provides a bread, from the use of which, even by persons 
of delicate digestive apparatus, none of the ills peculiar to fer- 
mented bread follow. It may be eaten warm with impunity, 
while with most persons it is necessary that fermented bread 
should lose its freshness, or become stale, in order to the destruc- 
tion of some objectionable qualities, before it may be eaten with 
safety. 

7. It is a method which, by providing agents of known quali- 
ties and strength, reduces the measure of skill required to a 
minimum ; and secures, with a very small dorrree of care and 
moderate expenditure of time, uniformly excellent bread. 



APPENDIX 



The details of the common method of making bread practised 
in Paris, the method of Mege-Mouries, and the new method, 
are subjoined, to enable the reader to judge of their comparative 
simplicity. 

Common Method practised in Paris. 

At eight o'clock in the evening a mass of paste (leaven or sour 
dough) is taken, composed of eight kilogrammes of flour and four 
kilogrammes of water. This is left until six o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and constitutes the main leaven. 

Eight kilogrammes more of flour and four kilogrammes of 
water are then added : this forms the first quality of leaven. 

At two o'clock in the afternoon sixteen kilogrammes of flour 
and eight of water are added : this is the second quality of leaven. 

At five o'clock the complete leaven is prepared by adding a 
hundred pounds of flour and fifty-two kilogrammes of water, mixed 
with from two hundred to three hundred grammes of yeast. 

At seven o'clock a hundred and thirty-two kilogrammes of flour 
and sixty-eight kilogrammes of water, holding in solution two kilo- 
grammes of salt, and mixed with from three hundred to six hun- 
dred grammes of yeast, are added to the leaven, and made into 
well-kneaded dough. 

With this quantity of paste five or six batches of bread are 
made in the following manner : — 

\st Batch. — Tliis is composed of half the dough prepared as 
above, which is moulded and left to rise, and then set into the 
oven. 



APPENDIX. 29 

The bread of this first baking is sour, rather brown, and not 
particularly light. 

2d Batch. — The dough remaining of the first batch is mixed 
with a hundred and thirty-two kilogrammes more of flour and 
sixty-eight kilogrammes of water, mixed with the same proportion 
of salt and yeast as the preceding batch. Half of this dough 
forms the second baking, the bread of which is whiter and better 
than the first. 

3d Batch. — The same quantity of flour, water, and salt, with 
three hundred grammes of yeast, are again added to the dough, 
of which half is baked as usual. 

4:tk Batch. — Same proceeding as for the third. 

5th Batch. — This is prepared like the foregoing, and produces 
what is called fancy bread, the finest quality of any. 

3fethod of Mege-Mouries. 

It is assumed that one hundred kilogrammes of wheaten 
meal have given, 

72 kil. 750 grammes finest white flour. 
15 " 750 " dark groats. 

11 " 500 " bran. 

1. At six o'clock in the afternoon take 40 litres^ (kilo- 
grammes) of water at 18° R. (72J^° Fahr.), add 70 gram, of 
pure yeast, or 700 gram, common grocer's yeast, and 100 
gram, starch-sugar. (Instead of the yeast and sugar, take, 
if necessary, 26 gram, of tartaric acid.) The place where 
the mixture is set aside must be maintained nearly at the tem- 
perature of 18° R. 

2. The next morning, at six o'clock, the fluid will be satu- 
rated with carbonic acid. Stir in the 15 kil. 750 gram, of 
groats. Fermentation will commence immediately. 

3. At two o'clock in the afternoon add 30 litres of water, and 
pass the whole through a very fine silk or silver-wire sieve, to 
separate the fine bran. 

4. The 70 litres Avith which the groats have been treated, after 
passing through the sieve, will be reduced to about bb litres, 

1 A litre of water weiglis 1,000 grammes = 1 kilogramme = 2.2 lbs. avoirdupois. 



30 APPENDIX. 

with which the 72 kih 750 gram, of white flour and 700 gram, 
of salt are to be kneaded into a dough. 

(The bran is again extracted with 30 Htres of water and 
tlie extract employed in the next batch.) 

5. The dough is then placed in baking-pans to ferment. 

6. When raised, it is placed in the oven. 

Tlie New Method, 

I. Self-raising flour is prepared, in which the phosphoric acid, 
bicarbonate of soda, and common salt are present in the required 
proportions. With this flour, it is only necessary thoroughly to 
knead in sufficient water to make a slightly sticky dough, and bake 
in covered tins, in a quick oven. The time required for a single 
person to prepare four loaves of a pound each, does not exceed 
five minutes, and the baking takes from thirty to forty-five more. 

II. The acid is prepared by itself, and may be mixed with the 
flour and bicarbonate of soda at the same time ; the equivalent 
quantities having been put up in separate parcels, and with them 
the measure for each. 

III. Lastly, the dry acid and dry bicarbonate of soda, mixed 
in equivalent quantities, may be added to the flour directly. This 
is the most convenient form for household use. The method ap- 
plied to making a quart of flour into one loaf of bread for family 
use, is as follows : — 

1. Provide a quick oven. [This requires a temperature of 
from 350° to 450° Fahr.] 

2. Stir a measure^ each of acid and soda into a quart of sifted 
dry flour, to wliich a teaspoonful of salt has been added. Mix in- 
timately with the hands. Then add from time to time cold water 
from a pint cup, stirring and kneading meanwhile, until just a pint 
of water has been most thoroughly incorporated with the flour. 

3. Shape the mass of dough into a loaf, place it in a deep tin 
bake-pan, with a cover so high as to be out of the reach of the 
risen dough, and set it immediately in the oven. 

1 The acid measure should contain 140 grains (9 grammes), and the soda 
measure 62 grains (4 grammes), for one pound of flour. 



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